Dental implants are known in the art and typically include a dental anchor securely inserted into or onto the patient jawbone, and an abutment member mountable to the dental anchor, for coupling a prosthodontic restoration thereon. Commonly, in the art, the abutment is affixed to the anchor through a fixation screw also known as an abutment screw.
A multitude of prefabricated abutments and implant systems of various designs are offered to clinicians in an effort to provide clinicians with necessary means to successfully restore edentulous patients.
In order to be successful, the implant and all prosthodontic restorative devices associated therewith, in particular those used on the implant, must meet specific functional, biological and esthetic requirements. These requirements may be achieved when the restorative implant system, and devices used on the implants, adhere to 8 biomechanical principles, including: 1. Preservation of implant structure; 2. Passive retention and passive support; 3. Resistance form; 4. Structural durability of the restoration; 5. Marginal integrity; 6. Retrievability; 7. Preservation of the perio-implant tissues; 8. Individuality; Therefore, for a successful implant procedure to take place, the above mentioned biomechanical principles must be met to achieve the implant requirements including functional requirements, biological requirements and esthetic requirements.
A number of factors in the design of the abutments and the restorative implant systems, for example abutment's geometry, shape, position and the connection to anchor system, determine if a restoration can adhere to mentioned biomechanical principles in order to achieve the desired functional, biological and esthetic requirements.
Prior art abutments and restorative systems do not meet these bio mechanical principals, leading to major drawbacks in the implants utilized today. These drawbacks cause clinicians to compromise the functional, biologic and esthetic requirements of the restoration. Restorative systems that do not adhere to the biomechanical principles, shorten the survivability and/or viability of the implant, necessitate: laborious maintenance, additional surgeries, determines reduced implant system functionality, poor esthetics and irreparable damage to host tissues.
One prior art Patent regarding abutment attempt to control the position of the abutment as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,453 to Niznick discloses an implant system which includes an anchor, the accessible end of which is located substantially at the level of the gum tissue at the alveolar crest. A bendable adapter made of titanium or titanium alloy has one end inserted into the accessible anchor socket for rigid connection thereto, and a second distal end projecting into the dental crown region to support a superstructure. The projecting part of the adapter may take various forms. It may provide a simple coping upon which a single tooth replacement may be built, or it may provide a socket for connection to companion structures. The intermediate portion of the adapter is necked down to provide a bendable region close to the level of the gum tissue whereby the anchor can be positioned for maximum retention, and the projecting end can be positioned to avoid tissue interference, to achieve parallelism for detachable connectors, to achieve maximum occlusal and esthetic functions.
Furthermore current implant anchor systems are devoid of uniformity and standardization such that the different anchors are incompatible with one another's abutment. Such incompatibility between different implant system manufacturers lead to increased cost and lack of standardization.